Saturday, 11 October 2014

Growing up

This blog is my way of documenting Ethan's milestones and our memories as a family, as well as providing a place for me to share my interests and experiences. I am all about recording and preserving memories and making a big deal about milestones, as you're no doubt aware, and so any new ideas or fun ways of doing this get me very excited.

The other week, hubs and I were talking about how we must start measuring Ethan's height, now that he can stand, as he seems to be growing fast and we don't want to turn around one day and wonder where this little boy came from. We have his red book marking his first few months in the world but nothing for a long while has been noted in there. We loved the idea of marking his height on the wall but, if we were to move, we'd have to leave this behind and couldn't bear the thought of that.

So, we started to research different growth chart options, from posters to canvases and that's when we came across Tall Tape.

It's a growth chart poster of sorts that's 10cm wide, measures up to two metres in height (even with hubs' genes, Ethan will surely never exceed this!) and comes in a range of seven beautifully illustrated designs (RRP £10.99).

We really liked the look of this growth chart - particularly the animal and tree designs - but we were completely sold as soon as we saw that there was a dinosaur design. You know how much we love dinosaurs in this family!

We quickly put this in our online basket and within a couple of days, our Tall Tape arrived. It comes in a plastic tube and complete with a mini Sharpie pen to use to mark your measurements onto the tape. The tape itself is made from a durable plastic material which is easy to write on but sure to stand the test of time - just what you want from this kind of product.

The colourful illustrations were even more beautiful in the flesh and we particularly love how the prehistoric creatures are organised according to size / where they would have roamed, with the sea dinosaurs at the bottom right up to the Pterodactyl at the top. Each one has its name next to it, so it's useful for learning purposes too.

We took a wriggly Ethan and measured his height before making our mark on the tape - he stands at just under 79cm tall now - before looking back through his medical book to mark on his previous measurements from when he was born and when he turned one. Going forward, once the tape has been fixed to the wall in the playroom, we will mark Ethan's height every few months and I know that this is something we will excitedly look forward to.

There's also something else I came across on the Tall Tape website that piqued my interest.

I have baby journals, photobooks, scrapbooks and a Cath Kidston suitcase full of cards, artwork and other things from Ethan's yearly days and I will happily add to these over time but inevitably, some things go awry. Dates get forgotten, cards misplaced and photos sometimes live on your phone alone and it that phone was ever to be lost, so would your precious mementoes.

Which is why the Memories of Growing Up USB stick me as such a simple, but wonderful, idea. It's a beautifully designed and presented USB stick to keep all your special photos and mementoes on, so they are safely stored away and can be added to at any time.

Whether you set yourself a goal of adding a photo a day, week or month, or you make sure you take screengrabs of photos of other important things, such as artwork your child has done, and add the to the stick alongside videos and notes, this USB stick is an easy way to keep memories safe.

People often say to me that they don't know where I find time to keep the records and albums and scrapbooks that I do but I think that this USB stick is the perfect solution for anyone, no matter how busy they are or how they like to record important things.

I like the idea of creating a document on the stick to add to over time with all the different milestones - first haircut, first shoes, first words, first day at school... - and then saving a few special photos in date order to look back at and add to in the future.

The Memories of Growing Up USB Stick is available in 16GB (£22.99) and 32GB (£29.99) capacities and would make for a lovely gift and keepsake. I'm going to spend some time adding things from the past two years onto this, from when we found out about Ethan to where we stand today, and know that this will be a quick and easy way to keep track of our family as we grow over the years ahead.

* Thank you to Tall Tape for sending us the USB stick to review. We were genuine customers and purchased the Tall Tape chart ourselves before finding out more and I wanted to share this with you as we think it's such a lovely idea. And if you're going to The Baby Show in London later this month (have you seen my competition?), go and meet the Tall Tape team at stand F12!

Hello

I’m Kelly, mama to Ethan (5) and bump (due December), wife to Ste and we live in Birmingham with our dog, two cats and two rabbits. You could say that life is pretty busy in our house… and it’s about to get busier!

TBM is a UK based family and lifestyle blog and vlog about my life, loves & adventures in motherhood, established since 2012. Here, I share my take on pregnancy, parenting, style, beauty, interiors, food and days out, and my mission to put the 'me' into mummy. Grab a cuppa and have a look around…